


Yenuno (Naga)

by TheTravelerWrites



Series: Monster Lovers: Hidden Creatures [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Abandonment, Artificial Insemination, Birth, C-Section, Cesarean Section, Egg Laying, Endangered Species, Exophilia, Extinction, F/M, First Person Perspective, Human/Monster Romance, Interspecies Romance, Make up sex, Monster Boyfriend, Naga, Naga Boyfriend, Oviposition, POV First Person, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Reconciliation, Reconciliation Sex, Separations, Species Repopulation, Surrogacy, Suspected Infidelity, Teen Pregnancy, Terato, Teratophilia, difficult birth, egg implantation, human/monster, human/naga - Freeform, male reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-08-08 18:06:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTravelerWrites/pseuds/TheTravelerWrites
Summary: A species of naga finds out that his breed is dying, as there are only four of his kind left in the world: all males, no females. His only hope to repopulate the species is to hire human surrogates through a conservation society. Only one woman takes the job.





	1. Chapter 1

Nagas have always been a secretive, anti-social bunch, so when other creatures decided to integrate into human society, nagas collectively, without actually conferencing with each other, decided to stay in the shadows. It was that decision that led to my current problem.

My kind is dying.

Not all nagas, though, just my species. We call ourselves Blue Gills, though we don’t really have gills. Our ancient ancestors used to be water creatures, we think. We’ve kept to the same forest since before written history, never venturing further than the edge. Out of all the different breeds, ours are especially isolated, and we like it that way. We’re not a hostile breed, we’re just… shy, and don’t like company. I guess it’s not surprising we’re dying out.

A preservation group call the Cryptid Conservation Society did a census of the forest dwelling creatures, like nagas and driders and such, and found that there were only four males of my species left, and no females. The other three didn’t seem too concerned with the potential extinction of our kind, but I was naturally alarmed. When they offered me a chance to help repopulate the species, I was hesitant, but I accepted.

Male nagas both create the eggs and fertilize them, but the eggs needed a warm, wet, living place to gestate until they hardened and needed to be laid. They needed a womb. Since there were no females of our species left, that meant that I would have to breed with another species whose bodies were strong enough to carry the eggs safely, but whose genetics would allow the progeny to maintain the physical characteristics of our kind.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many species that fit this criteria. Vampires, driders, most beast-people, bird-people, dryads, and insectoids were either physically or genetically incompatible. The genetics of orcs, werewolves, trolls, centaurs, gnolls, and elves were too strong. That left fauns, certain kinds of demons (who were also solitary creatures), and humans.

Apparently, I’m given to understand that humans do this sort of thing all the time: there were human women who were paid to carry the children of others and give them to the parents when they were born. It seemed like the best option, so the Conservation Society had sent out messages to women on the human surrogate list, hoping to get at least one reply. And they did, but only one.

She had accepted the request, filled out all the appropriate paperwork, passed all the medical and psychological tests, and was approved for the surrogacy within a week. She had even agreed to carry multiple clutches and work as a surrogate for as long as the Society needed, or until another surrogate took her place.

It might seem strange, but this was similar to how most naga species bred. The males and females often didn’t stay together after the breeding. It was a biological imperative that needed fulfilling, but once it was over, the eggs would stay with whichever parent decided they wanted them. Often, a clutch would be split between the two and they’d go their separate ways. Love, devotion, and mating for life were rare occurrences between our people.

Again, it’s no wonder we were on the brink of extinction.

I was given final approval of the surrogate. I had to be taught to read the human’s language to do so, but that was easy enough. She seemed suitable. Her information was alien and her picture was unremarkable; human women all looked alike to me. But she had apparently been a surrogate once before to a troll and dwarf couple. The dwarf woman was far too small to carry the troll’s child safely, and the surrogate in question had carried a healthy son for them.

I could see why she was the most obvious choice. It was uncommon for humans to be surrogates for non-humans. Her openness to help a species outside of her own made her ideal.

And today was the day we’d meet. I must admit, I felt a bit nervous. Before I learned that our species was endangered, I always thought there was plenty of time to breed, if that was what I wanted. Now that I knew my entire race depended on me and this stranger, it added a new weight of responsibility that I hadn’t been ready for.

Dr. Halvorg, the fae cryptobiologist running the repopulation program, stood with me in the receiving room as I waited for the surrogate to arrive. I preferred to work one-on-one, and Dr. Halvorg had been the one I had chosen to work with because I trusted him the most. I disliked working with the entire group at once. Being around so many people at once made me anxious and jittery.

“Are you nervous, Yenuno?” He asked me.

“Yes, a bit,” I admitted. “This is all still rather strange to me. My kind don't respond well to strangers.”

“Yes, your species does seem to possess a strong social anxiety, unfortunately. But don’t worry,” he said. “I conducted her interview myself. She’s a very kind, friendly person. She’ll be good for the program. I think you’ll like her.”

“I hope so. The future of my race depends on it.”

“Don’t be so negative,” Dr. Halvorg said. “We may find another surrogate if she doesn’t work out. Even if it takes time, it’s not like your an old man. You’re just fully grown as of last year. You’ve got decades of potential egg-laying years ahead of you. There could be any number of women willing to take part. She's just the first that accepted and passed all the tests. We've got time.”

“You’re making me more nervous,” I said uneasily, my tail swishing back and forth on it’s own with anxiety. The thought of having to not only meet, but impregnate, several surrogates was something that left me feeling extremely uncomfortable.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the door beyond the restricted area opened and I saw a woman walk in and address the receptionist. The glass for the restricted door was a one-way mirror, so I could see her, but she couldn’t see me.

Dr. Halvorg’s optimism didn’t reassure me. I wondered how she might react to me. I was rather large, my diamond-patterned skin royal blue in color. My upper torso was a paler blue, and my eyes were red and slitted. My hair was long, straight and black, and my three fingered hands were the same red as my eyes. I imagined that, to her, I might look terrifying or even monstrous. I wondered if she’d be frightened away, and we would have to find another. Or even if we could find another.

Well, I was about to find out. Dr. Halvorg went out to greet the woman, and I was left to wait anxiously, watching out of the window from the opposite end of the room, too nervous to move closer.

Before long, the door opened, and Dr. Halvorg led the young human woman inside.

“Ms. Hale, I’d like you to meet Yenuno. You’re going to be his surrogate.” Dr. Halvorg motioned for me to move closer, and I did shyly.

The young woman smiled up at me without a hint of fear or surprise. How odd. Her picture didn’t portray her properly. In it, her hair was pulled back and she wore what the human women had explained to me was make-up. Now, her face was clean and I could see speckles across her nose and cheeks. It was a rather charming effect. Her hair was down and fell in dark brown ringlets with lighter highlights that framed her face and bounced as she walked. Her blue-green eyes, a lovely color, were wide behind a pair of glasses that she hadn’t worn in her picture, and her expression was all open friendliness.

“I’m Amai,” She said. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Yenuno. It’s nice to finally see you face to face.” She extended her hand to me, her fingers outstretched and pressed together.

Ah, yes, I knew this. I’d seen members of the team doing it in greeting. I grasped her hand firmly, but not so hard that I hurt her, and shook it perhaps a little too vigorously, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“It is nice to meet you as well, Amai,” I said, hoping my nerves weren’t evident in my voice.

“Why don’t the two of you talk alone for a while, hmm?” Dr. Halvorg said, clapping a friendly hand on my shoulder and making me jump. I wasn't used to physical contact. “I think this would be a good moment for the two of you to get to know each other a little better.”

“Uh… yes. Yes, of course.”

Dr. Halvorg excused himself, leaving me alone with this new person I was expected to mate with.

After an awkward moment, I cleared my throat and said, “Forgive me if I seem taciturn. I’m not used to strangers.”

“I completely understand. Nagas aren’t exactly social creatures, are they? It’s natural that it’s hard for you to deal with people you just met. And I can’t imagine being in here helps at all.”

She motioned at the room we were in. White walls, steel doors, florescence lights, and cold floors. She was right, I didn’t like being in the facility building all that much.

“Is there somewhere you’d be more comfortable?” She asked.

I pointed to the door at the opposite end. “That door leads out to an enclosed part of the forest. I have a shelter there where I spend most of my time.” I turned back to her and shrugged shyly. “Would you like to see it?”

“Of course,” She said, smiling widely. She _was_ rather friendly, wasn’t she?

She followed me out into the forest and toward my shelter. The team had built it like a one-room house with an open side and a ramp so that I could just slither right in. There was a retractable wall that could be raised and lowered as needed to protect me from inclement weather. It was sparsely furnished save for my nest, since I didn’t really need furniture, but there was a table and a chair in the corner for visitors from the society.

I offered her a seat at the table and she took it with a smile. I positioned myself on the opposite side and rested back on the coil of my tail.

“So,” Amai began. “I’m sure you have some questions about surrogacy, and I’d be happy to answer anything you’d like to know.”

“You’ve done it before, I’ve read,” I said, reach for the file that was laying on the table. “For a troll and a dwarf, correct?”

“Yes, that was two years ago. My body has long since healed from that and is ready to start a new surrogacy.”

“Wasn’t it… difficult?” I asked.

She cocked her head to one side. “In what sense?”

“I mean… mating with someone else’s spouse…” I said, whispering a little, feeling rather disquieted.

Her eyes widened and she laughed. “Oh! Is that what you think happens? Did they not…? No, that’s… that’s not how it’s done.” She chuckled, a hand over her heart. “It was a method known as artificial insemination. They took an unfertilized egg from the mother, fertilized it in a lab with the father’s sperm, and then implanted it into my womb when they saw growth. I didn’t mate with anyone; it was all done in a lab.”

“Oh…” I frowned. “Well, then, this is even more awkward. You see, it can’t be done that way in this case. The only way to get them out if I’m not actively mating is to surgically remove them, but if the underdeveloped eggs are exposed to the air, they die. My eggs will have to be implanted into you… the old fashioned way.”

She nodded reassuringly. “I know. I was briefed on the delicate nature of this case. They told me in the psychological interview that the clinical way wouldn’t be an option.”

“So you know that… you and I will… have to...” I stumbled to a stop, embarrassed.

She smiled kindly. “Yes, I know. I’ve prepared myself for that.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“Yes,” She said resolutely. “I just want to help. It would be a tragedy if your species went extinct. If I can help stop that from happening, then I’m happy to do it.”

I cleared my throat again. “I… I’ve never done this before. Mated, that is. Or transferred eggs for gestation. This is new to me. I mean, I understand the mechanics and I have a natural instinct that drives me to do the important bits, like the implantation and fertilization, but I’m afraid I’ll be… well… inexperienced.”

“That’s okay,” She said, reaching across the table to touch my hand. “My job is not just to carry your children, but to make this as easy a process as possible for you, too. I’m here to help you. And trust me, you don’t have to be the best love-maker in the world to father children. I know that from experience.”

It was my turn to cock my head. “What do you mean?”

She blushed and shook her head. “What I mean is, I’m here for you as much as I am for your children. I want to help however I can. I’m fully aware of how delicate this situation is, and I will do what I can to make it as easy and painless as possible for both of us. I know we will have to have intercourse, and I’m prepared for that. I think I can manage it if it means saving an entire race.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. She _was_ perfect for the job. “That’s very reassuring.”

“Listen,” She said. “It’s going to be a week or so before my body’s natural cycle will be ready to accept your eggs, so why don’t we use that time to get to know each other? It might make the… implantation process a little easier.”

I nodded, smiling a little diffidently. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Amai moved into a room at the facility and spent much of each day with me. She told me more about the human world, and I told her about naga culture. I was taken aback to learn that she knew quite a bit about it already, having done extensive research before accepting the request. We even ate meals together. Despite the fact that my diet was raw meat and that I often ate things I had hunted myself that day, which were still mostly whole and not skinned, she never seemed bothered by it.

The implantation day was coming up fast, and I found myself becoming more and more terrified. She consoled me often. She was always so reassuring and compassionate, and in some ways, her confidence helped me feel a little more confident, too.

“Why did you decide to become a surrogate?” I asked her one morning over breakfast. She was eating a fruit salad with yogurt and I was eating a badger.

She sighed. “Oh, Yenuno… that’s quite a story.”

“I know it may be a sensitive subject for you,” I said, having noticed she tended to veer away from discussion of her younger years. “But… please. I want to understand why you decided to do this for me. For my species. It couldn't have been an easy decision."

"I suppose that's fair," Amai said reluctantly. She laid down her fork and sighed, knitting her fingers together and putting them against her full lips.

“When I was fifteen,” She began slowly, not looking at me. “I got involved with a guy who was quite a bit older than me. I was kind of neglected at home and I was desperate for affection, so I just threw myself at this guy and did anything he wanted me to do. He pressured me for sex pretty early on, and because I wanted him to stay with me, I did it. And, invariably, I ended up pregnant.

“He bolted as soon as he found out, and my parents were so disgusted with me that they threw me out. There was no way I was going to be able to take care of the baby, but I didn’t just want to abandon it, either, so instead of waiting til the baby was born and dropping it off at an orphanage or something, I went online and found out that some people who wanted to adopt children were willing to pay to support the mother through the pregnancy. So I signed up for a local program. There was a gay couple dying to adopt, but they couldn’t get approved because of racial bias.”

"Racial bias?" I interrupted.

She paused and rolled her eyes. “ _Some_ people still don’t like the idea of interspecies couples having kids, let alone allowing them to adopt a human baby, which is just absurd." She shook her head and waved this away. "Anyway, I messaged them and volunteered to give them my baby. They were… overjoyed. They put me up and took care of all my medical expenses and personal needs until the baby was born, and I was paid handsomely, enough to get me through school. As sad as I was to let that baby go, the look of joy on their faces when they held it for the first time was everything to me.”

She smiled in a sad, fond way. “That’s why I went into surrogacy. Because I know I can give people something that they can’t get anywhere else. I can give them joy. And that’s the best job in the world.”

“I see…” I replied carefully. “Have you seen the baby since?”

“No,” She said, looking down at her bowl. “I don’t have any right to. The baby legally doesn’t belong to me anymore. I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl, or what it’s name is. And I don’t have any legal right to know.”

I studied her face. “And it makes you sad.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, frowning in dismay.

She looked up, sniffing, and gave me a half-hearted smile. “It’s okay, Yenuno. Don’t worry. It allowed me to find my calling. And it led me here. And I’m not sorry about that.”

I smiled at her. She was so… selfless and kind. I hadn’t met many humans before the society, but I had a feeling that even among her own kind, she was… special.

“I feel relief and gratitude that you will be the one to help revive my species, Amai,” I said to her, taking her hand. “You’re a truly remarkable person.”

Her smile became genuine. “So are you, Yenuno. I’m happy I can do this for you.”

The day finally arrived. Amai had several blood and gynecological tests done to make sure her body was in peak condition for the implantation, and I had an ultrasound done to check on the condition of the eggs. She met me at the door to the enclosed forest area wearing only a hospital gown. We stood together in a nervous silence as the conservation group placed vital sign monitors on our bodies, connected to wireless packs on a belt around our waists. Dr. Halvorg was already in the monitoring room, gathering data as it came in.

“They’re not going to watch us, are they?” She asked me, clearly disconcerted by the idea.

“Oh, heavens, no,” I said scornfully. “Dr. Halvorg expressed interest in my race’s mating habits, but I told him they were not to watch us in no uncertain terms.”

“Oh, good,” Amai breathed in relief.

“They are giving you a panic button, though,” I said, pointing to a small, red button they had taped to her wrist. “In case something goes wrong or you feel unsafe.”

“That’s thoughtful of them,” She said. Her voice was shaking a little.

I reached out, and she took my hand.

“Are you nervous, too?” I asked. It was hard to have a private conversation with researchers buzzing around us, but I had become fond of Amai in the short days she had been at the facility. Her comfort and well-being was as important to me as this whole repopulation process itself.

“I am,” She admitted reluctantly. “I mean, I’ve been… intimate before, but… this will be much different.”

“Yes, I imagine so,” I said regretfully. “I’ll be careful. I’ll try my best not to hurt you.”

She smiled sweetly at me. “I know.”

Finally, they were done fussing over us and allowed us to leave the facility and head toward my shelter. I normally slept on straw covered in furs, but I wanted Amai to be comfortable, so I had some soft blankets and pillows brought in for her.

I took her hand and helped her up the ramp before following her, and pulled the retractable wall down so that we had privacy. The shelter had electricity, so I turned on a lamp and a few other low lights, and turned to her, wondering how to begin.

“I’m sorry this is so awkward,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “I wish this felt a little more natural.”

She looked at me with her head tilted, as if considering me, then stepped forward and took my face in her hands. Before I could say anything, she kissed me. It was soft and sweet and I found I enjoyed it very much. My arms seemed to wrap themselves around her waist of their own accord. Her body was so warm that I didn’t want to let go.

When we parted, I looked into her beautiful eyes and huffed a laugh. “You _are_ making this rather easy for me, aren’t you?”

She chuckled back. “That’s my job, isn’t it?”

“Can I kiss you again?” I asked, and she nodded. I pressed my cold lips to her warm ones experimentally. To my surprise, her tongue slipped into my mouth. It was rather pleasant.

She stepped back and untied the strings holding the hospital gown to her body, and it fell away, leaving her wearing only the belt with the leads attached to it. Her body was… exquisite. I reached out without thinking to touch her, but snatched it back before I actually made contact.

“It’s okay, Yenuno,” She assured me, taking my hand and laying it on her collarbone. “You can touch me.”

My hand traveled downward, over her breasts, to lay itself on her stomach. Her skin was the softest thing I’d ever put my hands on. All I wanted to do was caress it and press my cheek and forehead against it. I leaned forward and put my nose into the crook of her neck, and inhaled the scent of her hair. She smelled so enticing. I could feel my twin lengths begin to nudge themselves out of the slit in my abdomen. I looked down, a little embarrassed.

She followed my gaze and grinned slightly. “May I touch?” She asked. I nodded. She touched one of the members with a feather-light pressure, enough to know she was there but not enough to pulled them out further.

“My fingers are a little tingly and numb. Which one is the implanter?”

“The thinner one, the one with the pointed head,” I huffed, gripping her shoulders. “The one you’re touching.”

She let it go of it and touched the second one, just poking out of the slit. “Implantation is first, isn’t it? And then fertilization?”

“Yes,” I replied. “The eggs must be laid in the receptacle first. The implanter secretes a numbing agent so that implantation won’t hurt the surrogate body, which would be you in this case. You might feel some pressure as your womb expands to accommodate them, though.”

“How big are they?” She asked.

“About the size of a golf ball, Dr. Halvorg says, though I don’t know what a golf ball is or how big they are,” I replied.

“About this big,” Amai said, making a smallish circle with her thumb and middle finger.

“Ah,” I said. “They’ll get much bigger over the three months that you carry them, about ten times that size.”

“Oof, cantaloupes,” She replied, grimacing. “It’s okay,” she said when she saw my confused face. “It’ll be alright.” She nodded resolutely, kissed me again, and laid down in the nest, reaching up for me. I sank down into her arms and nuzzled her neck. The implanter was fully exposed now, and the thicker cock retracted. If it stayed out during the implantation, there was every likelihood that I could waste the seed and have to wait nearly an hour or two for the next chance at insemination.

“Are you ready?” She asked me softly, her hand on my cheek.

“I think so,” I said shakily. “Are you?”

She nodded and smiled at me reassuringly. “Yes. I’m ready.”

My heart was racing with fear as I lay over her, her legs open and knees up, and my implanting organ slowly pushed itself inside her. She made a slight grunting sound.

“Does it hurt?” I asked anxiously.

“No, no,” She assured me. “There’s not much sensation at all, actually. That’s the strange part about it. That numbing agent is really effective.”

As I was immune to the numbing agent, I was able to feel as my implanter went all the way inside and was met with a tight opening. The sharp tip of the implanter pushed into this opening with ease, and I felt her tense a little.

“Did you feel that?” I asked.

“Kind of,” She replied. “There was a weird pressing feeling. It didn’t hurt, though. You’re doing fine. Keep going.”

I nodded, beginning to sweat nervously. When I was fully inside the womb, the head of the implanter bloomed and sealed itself inside of her, squirting a small amount of the numbing agent into the womb. As soon as we were locked together, I felt the first egg descend. While it was vaguely painful, it also felt strangely pleasant. I groaned, and she rubbed my back consolingly.

“The first egg is coming,” I said through gritted teeth.

She tilted her pelvis upward and spread her knees a little wider, opening herself up a little more. The egg came down and passed through the implanter and out into the womb. My body seized up and I gasped in both pleasure and pain as it left me, squeezing my eyes shut.

“You’re doing great, Yenuno,” Amai whispered into my ear. Her hands petted my back and shoulders and touched my face gently. “You’re doing so well.”

The second egg came down swiftly and joined the first, leaving me panting with exertion. After the third, though, she shifted underneath me and made a small sound.

“Are you beginning to feel the pressure?” I asked breathlessly.

“Yeah, a bit,” She said. “How many are there going to be?”

“The ultrasound showed four, but there may be more we couldn’t see,” I said, trying to coax the fourth down.

“Okay, I can do that. We can do this,” She said. She leaned up and kissed my cheek.

I pushed up on my hands and looked down into her eyes. “Thank you for doing this for me,” I said. “I’ve never said thank you. I’m so grateful.”

She smiled a loving smile, and I bent to kiss her as the fourth passed out of me and into her, and we both grunted against each other’s lips.

There ended up being five eggs in total, and when the last one exited my body, the head of my implanter closed itself up and retracted. The opening inside Amai snapped shut as I withdrew, keeping the eggs firmly inside her. I flopped onto my side, wheezing.

“Are you alright?” She asked, though she didn’t move for fear of shifting the eggs too soon.

“Yeah,” I breathed. “I didn’t realize how physically demanding that was going to be.”

I drew back up once I had caught my breath and saw that Amai’s stomach was bulging a little bit, and marveled at the fact that my eggs were in there. I wanted to touch it, but I was concerned she might be feeling a little tender there.

“How long does the numbing agent last?” She asked.

“Once I’ve withdrawn, it should wear off in about fifteen minutes. Then I can… well… we can… fertilize the eggs.”

“You can say ‘have sex,’ Yenuno,” She said with a smirk. I felt myself blush. “Besides, you could do the insemination now, if you wanted. My consent is the most important part of the deal. My enjoyment isn’t nearly so important.”

“It is to me,” I said. “You’re not just an incubator to me. We're friends now and I care about you. Just because we’re reviving a dying race doesn’t mean you should still enjoy the experience.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” She said with a smile, touching my cheek with her hand. The other reached between her legs and touched the softness there. “Well, I suppose we can wait fifteen minutes, then.”

I watched her as she moved her fingers in small, slow strokes.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously.

“This is how I pleasure myself,” She explained. “I don’t feel anything right now, not even the pressure of my fingers. Once the feeling comes back, it’ll feel really good.”

I watched her for a few moments, fascinated, before asking, “May I try?”

She smiled and nodded, taking my hand and placing where hers had been. One of my fingers equaled three of hers, so once she showed me what to do, I covered much more surface area and could reach places she couldn’t. She was incredibly slick and hot, and I enjoyed the feeling against my fingers.

While I was doing this, she traced the patterns of the scales on my chest with her fingertips, leaving trails of fire and ice behind.

“You’re body is so warm,” I said softly. “I really like how it feels on my skin.”

She smiled wider. “You’re beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?”

I shook my head, returning her smile. We fell into a comfortable silence, gently touching each other. I was beginning to feel incredibly at ease. I’d never felt this calm around anyone before, let alone a human. I didn't know how to process this feeling, so I set it aside for the moment.

After a time, her hands stilled on my chest and her eyes closed. She bit her lip and her hips twitched slightly. Her breathing changed and a little moan escaped her pursed lips.

“Amai? Are you okay?”

“The feeling is returning,” She said with a side smile. “Press a little harder.”

I obeyed, and her hips rolled up against my hand. I was surprised by this reaction, but pleased.

“How will we know when the feeling returns on the inside?” I asked.

In answer, she reached down to take my hand and pressed one finger against her entrance, urging me to push it inside. I complied, and she let out a breathy moan.

“It’s coming back,” She said. “Can you… can you move it in and out?”

Slowly, I pulled my finger out of her and pushed it back inside, and she moaned again. The sounds she was making was arousing me, and the thicker organ began to push itself out of the slit in my abdomen, dripping with my own fluids.

She reached up to touch her breasts as her breathing sped up. Her brow furrowed and her eyes were barely open. I bent to kiss her, and she kissed me back with fervor.

“I’m ready,” She whispered against the skin of my cheek.

My heart raced again, but for a different reason. I rolled my body back over hers and lined my length up against her slit, pushing into her gently. She gasped and clutched my arms, her legs wrapping around my body.

I buried my face in the crook of her neck and panted against her skin as I pushed myself as far as her body would allow, and pulled out again, repeating the motion. Carefully, so that I didn’t press against her stomach, I held her against me and thrust into her again and again. She gasped and moaned and told me over and over that it felt so good and to not stop and that I was doing everything just right.

The heat inside her body was searing but felt like paradise. Her body heat externally was also rising, and I wanted to bathe in it. She urged me to thrust faster, and I did, feeling a peak rising in me that was instinctive and overwhelming.

“Oh, god,” Amai gasped. “I’m so close.”

I could only grunt in reply. She was squeezing around my length tightly and the feeling of it was indescribable. The peak was coming fast and I felt it crash into me just as she cried out, her legs locking around me. She bit my neck in an effort to stop herself from being too loud. We weren’t that far from the facility, after all.

I cried out as well, less concerned with who heard me, and felt my seed shoot out of my body and into hers. Where implanting the eggs was a strange mixture of pain and pleasure, this was pure, mind-obliterating ecstasy. When I finally slowed to a stop, we were both gasping for breath and making slight sounds of residual pleasure.

I collapsed sideways next to her, and she closed her legs tight, preventing anything from escaping her body.

“Have we done it?” I asked, gulping down air. “Is it done?”

“I don’t know,” She responded, just as breathless as I was. “It’ll take a few days to know for sure. We may need to do this again. The insemination part, I mean.”

“You won’t hear me complaining,” I said wryly, and she laughed as well as she could while still catching her breath.

Dr. Halvorg instructed Amai to lay on her back for at least thirty minutes after insemination to allow for optimal saturation, so we lay there for a while, talking and touching. We were both excited to learn if the implantation took. She was happy to have been a part of this, and as strange as it was for me to admit, I was really looking forward to meeting my children.

One of the team had given Amai a plug to insert into herself to prevent anything from “falling out,” which looked extremely uncomfortable to me, but Amai put it in with no complaint before standing and putting her hospital gown back on. I couldn’t help but stare at her belly while she was getting dressed, imagining my eggs growing inside of her. I opened up the side of the shelter and helped her step down, and hand in hand, we made our way back to the facility.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After laying the eggs and watching them hatch, Amai must leave until the next mating season in six months. In that time, Yenuno comes to an important realization.

Two weeks passed. Amai and I engaged in three more insemination sessions before Dr. Halvorg was satisfied that the eggs had been fertilized. One of the eggs died and was expelled from Amai’s body, but the other four were implanted firmly and her womb had sealed to protect them. After many tests and ultrasounds, Dr. Halvorg was pleased to announce to us that the remaining eggs were not only viable, but very healthy and already growing, having gained three millimeters since implantation.

Amai and I were overjoyed, but now that the eggs were growing and alive and _real_ , I was beginning to be terrified about not only their well-being, but Amai’s as well. I did, indeed, think of her as a very close friend, if not more.

Dr. Halvorg ordered her to rest as much as possible, not to lift anything more than fifteen pounds and to drink as much water as she could each day. She was to wear monitors on her belly that fed constant feedback to the monitoring station and was discouraged from leaving the facility while she was carrying the eggs. Otherwise, she was free to move around the facility as she wished. And as it turned out, she wished to spend most of her time with me.

She had made herself her own little nest that she sat on in my shelter with the pillows and blankets I had gathered. She said it was her favorite place to be, and it always made me puff up a little when she said it. As the days wore on, her belly got bigger and bigger, and I had to quash an intense desire to lay my hand on it all the time.

She often brought her mobile computer to work on. She was a consultant for a Neogon civil rights law firm as her first job. I asked if her employers were alright with her second job, and she laughed and said that they had thrown her a baby shower before she’d come to the facility. She then explained to me what a baby shower was.

“How old are you, Yenuno?” She asked, typing away.

“I’m 38,” I replied.

She looked surprised. “You look much younger than that,” She said.

“For a human, you might mean. How old are you, then?” I asked.

“I’m 24.” She shut her laptop with a click. “Dr. Halvorg said you’d only just become mature last year.”

“Yes,” I said, moving closer. From this vantage, I could see the bulge of her stomach. It was hard to take my eyes off of it. “Nagas are a long lived species. We’re born relatively well developed, but our physical development slows significantly around age three, especially if we hibernate. Since our bodies are in a sort of stasis in hibernation, the aging process slows down.”

“What if you never hibernated? Like, what if you lived in a place that was warm enough and had enough food that you didn’t need to hibernate?”

“Then we’d likely age more quickly. I’ve hibernated every year since I was small, so I’m not sure.”

“I slept for sixteen hours after a kegger once, but I don’t think that counts,” She said, grinning. I grinned back. My eye was drawn back to her stomach and I sighed.

“Oh, for goodness sake, Yenuno,” She said, pulling up the hem of her shirt to expose the flesh of her stretched stomach. “Just touch it.”

I jumped and reached out, laying my hand on her skin gently. It looked smooth, but it was actually a little lumpy to the touch. There were paler streaks of skin that ran from her navel outward because of how the skin had stretched in such a short period of time. Some were pinkish, but others had a silvery sheen. She informed me that those were old marks from her previous pregnancies.

“Can you feel them moving yet?” I asked in a hushed voice.

She shook her head. “Dr. Halvorg said I may not feel movement. You’re more likely to feel it when your sitting with them after they’re laid.”

After naga eggs are laid, the mother or father wraps their bodies around them for three months, not moving or eating for the entirety of the external gestation. However, since I would be at the facility for this process, they were going to appoint me a personal assistant to care for me while I sat the eggs. I didn’t know who they would choose, but I hoped they wouldn’t bother me too much. Silence and stillness was crucial.

“It won’t be long now,” She said. “Another few days, maybe.”

“Yes,” I said, feeling a little sad. “And then you’ll be leaving us.”

“Just for this year,” She said, smiling. “I’ll be back for your mating season next year.”

“Yes,” I repeated. “I’ll look forward to seeing you again.”

She laid her hand over mine on her stomach and we sat in a contemplative silence.

Four days later, as she was walking out to my shelter, she clutched her stomach and fell to her knees.

“Yenuno!” She called, and I shot out of my shelter and bent to pick her up.

“What is it? Is it time?” I asked in a panic.

“I think so,” She gasped. She reached for the panic button on her wrist, and an alarm sounded throughout the facility. The team led by Dr. Halvorg came running out of the doors as I laid Amai in my nest and held her hand.

“Does it hurt?” I asked her as the team laid towels underneath her. The team bustled around with water and more towels and Dr. Halvorg positioned himself at Amai’s feet, gently drawing her underwear off her legs.

“Yes,” She cried. “It feels like I’m being stabbed from all sides.”

“I didn’t realize laying the eggs would do that to you,” I cried, stricken.

“Oh, no,” She said breathlessly, managing a small smile. “That’s just childbirth in general.”

The alarm must have been evident on my face, because she clutched my hand in reassurance. 

“Don’t worry,” She said, trying to breathe evenly. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ve done this twice before. I know what I’m doing.”

“Well, this is a little different,” I pointed out, trying not to panic more at the thought of her in this kind of agony.

“Certainly feels the same,” She said, giving me a pained grin.

The next few hours were grueling, and I had no idea Amai was so strong. She was drenched in sweat and shaking, but she pushed each egg out slowly and carefully, to be caught by a team member, cleaned, and placed in the middle of my nest. As soon as the last egg left her body, Amai went limp and gasped for breath, her eyes closing. Once all four eggs were out and dry and fixed with movement monitors, I was directed to position myself around them.

“But…” I looked back at Amai, who was pulled from my grasp and put onto a stretcher.

“Don’t worry about me, Yenuno,” She said as they covered her with a blanket. “I’ll be fine in a day or two. Take care of the babies. I’ll be back to see you soon.”

I nodded, frowning. Lifting myself up, I slithered into the nest were they had laid my little eggs, coiling around them and settled in for a long three months.

The next morning, I were surprised to see Amai walking up with Dr. Halvorg, who was carrying a plate of meat.

Amai!” I exclaimed, rearing up from where I was laying on my coiled tail and reaching out my arms for her. “Are you okay?”

She stepped into my embrace and hugged me around the neck. “I’m fine, Yenuno, just a little sore.” She let me go and peeked into the circle of my tail. “How are the little ones?”

“They’re fine, as far as I can tell,” I said, following her gaze.

“Yes, they’re doing well,” Dr. Halvorg said, looking at a clipboard. “There’s lots of small movement and some audio coming from inside the shells. They seem very healthy.”

“That’s a relief,” Amai said. “So what now?”

“Well, we’ll be finding Yenuno a personal assistant and we’ll be saying goodbye to you tomorrow, once your exit physical is normal,” Dr. Halvorg said.

“Well…” Amai said before pausing, licking her lips and picking her nails nervously. “What if… Could I volunteer to be Yenuno’s personal assistant?”

I perked up at this. I fully expected she would be ready to leave.

Even Dr. Halvorg was taken aback. “Well… I see no reason why not. Yenuno, would you be open to--”

“Yes!” I said with a grin, perhaps too quickly. “Yes, that’s perfectly fine with me.” Amai returned my smile.

Dr. Halvorg looked between us and cleared his throat. “Well, then, after Yenuno eats his breakfast, I’ll go over your duties.”

Amai moved into a temporary monitoring station right next to my shelter, so she could be close if I needed anything. She was to bring me meals, monitor my physical and mental state, and change out the leads every few days. She was diligent and patient, even on days when being in one place for so long made me cranky. She’d simply smile knowingly and bring me an extra plate of meat to placate me.

Often, she would stay in the shelter with me at night and we would talk for hours about all sorts of things. She often stared the eggs in a similar way as I had stared at her belly when she was carrying them.

“Do you want to touch them?” I asked her one night. They had doubled in size and were getting very wiggly.

“Are you sure?” She asked, getting up from her prone position to settle on her knees outside the coil of my tail.

“Of course, Amai,” I said, taking her hand and leading her forward. “There only here because of you.”

She reached into the shelter of my body and laid her hand flat on one of the eggs, rubbing softly.

“Can you feel them yet?” She asked.

“Sometimes,” I said. “They’re getting stronger. Sometimes they move about and can’t help but knock the shell around a little.”

Amai smiled fondly. “They’re going to be beautiful, just like their father.”

I flushed, ducking my head. “It’ll be soon. A week, maybe.”

Amai sighed. “And then I really will have to leave.”

“Do you want to stay?” I asked, a feeling similar to hope in my chest. Hope for what, I was unsure.

She didn’t answer right away, simply stroked the cool shells of the eggs in my charge before slowly pulling her hand away, letting it trail over my scales as she did so. I suppressed a shiver.

“I have work waiting for me when I leave,” She said, not looking at me. “Important work. I’ve already left it for too long.” She smiled at me, though it felt forced. “Besides, I’ve already talked to the Society team. There’s no reason for me to stay once the eggs have hatched. They have specialists to help you raise them. I’d just be in the way.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I said, feeling a little empty. I wanted her to stay. She was the only friend I’d ever had.

She laughed. “Don’t worry,” She said as she got to her feet. “Once the babies are here, you’ll be run so ragged you won’t even have time to miss me.” She stepped down the ramp and called back. “I’ll go get your dinner now.”

I watched her walk off, feeling as though she might be wrong about that.

In the middle of the night eight days later, I heard a strange scrabbling noise that woke me from sleep. I immediately checked the eggs, and one was moving, quivering violently. The others were moving less so, but there was still obvious signs of hatching.

“Amai!” I called out of the open side of the shelter. “Amai, quick!”

It took a moment, but Amai stepped out of her station, blearily looking at me. “What is it?” She asked.

“It’s time!” I called excitedly.

“I’ll go get Dr. Halvorg!” She said, turning to dash to the facility.

“No!” I said, and she paused, looking back at me. “No, this moment… this is private. This is just for us.”

“Us?” She said quietly.

“You and me,” I said, reaching a hand out for her. “This is our moment. We can get the team when it’s over. We should be the first to see them.”

Hesitantly, she took my hand and knelt down next to me. I uncoiled my tail enough that I wasn’t obscuring them but still supporting them. We waited with bated breath as the first crack appeared in one of the eggs, and Amai gasped and tightened her grip.

Finally, after a few minutes, a little blue hand emerged from the egg. It had three fingers, just like me. My heart jumped into my throat. A little blue tail poked itself out of another, and Amai squealed happily and held a fist against her mouth.

It took a good twenty minutes, but finally they were out, already attempting to pull themselves up by their arms.

Amai reached out and touched one of their sticky heads. “They’re not floppy like human babies. They look like they're at least six months old.”

I nodded. “Since nagas lay multiple eggs and we couldn't possibly carry the entire clutch until they were old enough to move on their own, the babies have to develop quickly. By morning, they’ll all be able to move independently. They’ll start speaking in about two months.”

“That’s amazing,” She breathed.

“I’m so glad you were here for this,” I said. “It wouldn’t have felt right if you weren’t.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” She said, beaming up at me.

They were perfect. They looked almost just like me, dark blue diamonds scales, paler blue skin, red eyes, red hands, black hair. Though their hair seemed to be a little more curly than mine, but that might have been the viscera of their birth.

Eventually, Amai went to get the team and they cleaned the children up, checking their vitals and picking bits of shell out of their hair.

Amai lifted one and put him in my arms, and I looked down at my own son, and he looked at me. And he smiled.

I didn’t know I was crying until Amai wiped my face.

“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned.

“Yes,” I said, smiling. “I think so. I’m just… happy.”

She smiled, too. “They’re beautiful, Yenuno. Just beautiful.”

Dr. Halvorg had brought lizards and mice for the babies to eat, and once they had eaten, they fell asleep in the coil of my tail, their little hands grasping and the tips of their tails twitching.

The next morning, it couldn’t be put off any longer. The little ones instinctively followed me everywhere, and I led them into the facility. Amai stood their with her luggage and waited for us. The children went right up to her for a cuddle, which she was happy to give.

“Thank you,” I said to her. “Thank you for doing this.”

“It was a privilege, truly,” She replied. “And just think, we get to do it again in six months.”

“I genuinely look forward to it,” I told her. “Though I do wish you could stay.”

She ducked her head and smiled shyly. “Six months will pass like no time at all. You’ll see.”

I opened my arms, and she hugged me. Abruptly, she let go, picked up her bags, and walked to the door. Distracted as I was by the children, I couldn’t have seen how hard she wept.

She was wrong. The six months I waited for her to come back was the longest of my entire life. It felt like centuries. It was true that during the day, I had my hands full with my children, teaching them to hunt in the forest and showing them how to fend for themselves when they got older, at night when they slept, all I could do was think of her.

I missed the sound of her voice and the color of her eyes and the glow of her skin. I missed the scent of her hair and the fond smile she got when we spoke of the children. I missed having meals and conversations together. I missed her dearly.

And as strange as it is, even though the children’s genetics were 95% mine, I saw her in them. In the curl of their hair and the glint of their eye, I saw her.

There were three boys and a single girl, and I adored them all. They were the most precious things I’d ever seen and I couldn’t wait for Amai to come back and see how they’d grown and marvel at their progress. Most of all, I just wanted her to _come back_.

After an eternity, I got word from Dr. Halvorg that she had called and was coming the next day. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t breathe. I told the children, and they were excited to see her again, too. I told them all about her the entire time she had been gone, and they couldn't wait to see her any more than I could. That night, I struggled to sleep, to anxious and excited.

Then, I saw her in the reception area and my heart felt whole again. When she walked through the door, I rushed forward and grabbed her up before I even knew what I was doing.

“Whoa!” She said, laughing. “I’m glad to see you too, big guy.”

“Oh, I’ve missed you,” I said.

“Really?” She said, pulling back.

I nodded. “I’ve told the children you were coming. They’ll be happy to see you.”

“Oh, gosh, I cant wait to see them,” She said, her hands over her mouth.

“They’re just outside, in the enclosure.” I took her hand and pulled her forward. “Come on!”

I brought her outside. The children were playing a game among themselves, but stopped when they saw me.

“Oh, my goodness, they’ve grown so much!” She said happily.

“My dears,” I said, pulling Amai forward. “This is the woman I’ve told you about. This is your mother.”

The look of stunned surprise on Amai’s face evaporated into joy when the children rushed her, shouting and laughing.

She laughed too. “They’re so friendly!”

“Yes, they’re much like you in temperament,” I told her. “It was a surprise, certainly. Nagas are never this extroverted. They must have gotten it from you.”

She seemed momentarily speechless as she hugged them close. “What are their names?”

“The three boys are Keenai, Tani, and Fuma,” I said, picking up my only daughter. “And this little girl is Amaia.”

She covered her heart with her hand, touched. “You named her after me?”

“You’re why she exists, aren’t you?” I asked her. Amai looked as if she might cry.

Dr. Halvorg met us then, and took Amai away for blood tests and to sign paperwork.

She came to me at my shelter later that night, stepping carefully past the sleeping children on the open ground.

“They like to see the stars when they lay down for the night,” I whispered as she walked up into the shelter.

“They’re so cute,” She cooed, reaching down to brush a curl from Fuma’s face. He stirred, but didn’t wake.

I held out my hand and helped her up the ramp. I then pulled down the retractable wall enough so that we could talk a little louder, but so I could still see the children sleeping just outside.

“Good news,” Amai said. “My fertile cycle is at just the right time. We can do the implantation in two days.”

I took a deep breath, willing my heart to slow. “That’s good. Very good.”

She cocked her head at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine.”

She looked out over the sleeping forms of our offspring. “Are you ready for more babies, or are these ones wearing you out?”

“I can’t wait for more little ones,” I said. “Those four have been a blessing. I’m so glad I accepted the offer to do this.”

Two nights later, she and I stood at the door to the enclosure, getting prepped by the team.

“Deja vu, huh?” She asked me. I didn’t understand, but she shook her head. “Nevermind.”

We walked hand in hand to my shelter. The children were off hunting in a safe part of the woods with a werewolf who worked with the team, so they’d be gone until morning.

I pulled down the wall and turned to her. I was just as nervous as the first time, but for an entirely new reason. I had come to a decision. I was overjoyed to have her back, and seeing her with the children felt so right, so natural. She would be here for the next six months, and I knew the children would grow attached to her. They would be heartbroken when she left. And so would I.

“Amai,” I started, reaching for her hands.

She took them. “What is it, Yenuno? You’ve seemed anxious since I arrived.”

I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me. She didn’t pull away; in fact, she leaned into my embrace, wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Amai, you love the children, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” She said against my collarbone. “It’ll be so hard to leave them at the end of this season.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Then don’t leave. Stay with us.”

She chuckled sadly. “Yenuno, I already told you, the Society won’t let me stay once the eggs are hatched.”

“I’m not talking about the Society, forget about them,” I said. “I meant us. Me and the children. Stay with us and be their mother, and my… my mate.”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“Please, stay with me. It took me an entire half year of you being gone for me to realize that I was in love with you. But perhaps I knew before. I was just scared to jeopardize the program. Either way, I doesn't matter now. I don’t want to breed with anyone else, my race be damned. I want to be with you.”

She gasped and struggled for breath. “Why… why didn’t you tell me sooner? I cried for a week when I left.”

I took her face in my hands and leaned my forehead against hers. “I wish you had come back. I wanted you to.”

“I wanted to as well, but I didn’t think they’d let me stay. And I didn’t know if you shared my feelings. I didn’t want to mess up the program.”

“So you’ll stay? You’ll be my mate and a mother to my children?”

“Of course, Yenuno. It’s all I’ve wanted,” She said, tears streaking down her face. I kissed her cheeks and her eyes, and then focused on her mouth. I kissed her like I never had before. I poured all my need and longing and desperation into it, and she responded in kind.

After a moment, though, she stopped me.

“We have a job to do, Yenuno,” She reminded me, sniffling. “We can figure the rest of this out after.”

I nodded, lifting her from the ground with my arms and lying her in the nest. We continued kissing and tasting each other’s skin. My implanter emerged from my body and entered hers with ease. She showed no sigh of discomfort, simply looked up at me with love and desire in her eyes.

I had only three eggs to implant this go around, and she was as comforting and confident as she had been the last time. God, how I had missed her quiet support and consolation.

Now that I knew what to expect, I recovered much quicker than I had the first time. My implanter withdrew, and I spent the time it took for the numbing agent to wear off kissing and sucking at Amai’s body, paying special attention to her breasts and the inside of her thighs. She cooed and sighed appreciatively.

My tongue flicked out, curious, to taste the fragrant place between her legs, and she moaned.

“The feeling is definitely back,” She said, giggling a little.

“Does this feel good?” I asked as I pressed my mouth against her.

“Oh, yes,” She said breathily.

I sucked and she cried out, her pelvis rolling against my lips. “I think that numbing agent makes me incredibly sensitive when it wears off.”

I pushed one of my fingers into her, and her hips rose off of the floor, the muscles of her thighs shaking. She sat up abruptly and kissed me hard, knocking me onto my back. At this angle, her slightly swollen belly was in my direct line of vision.

My second cock, as blue as the rest of me, was already hard and pulsing, and she reached out to gently stroke it. I spasmed and groaned. She rose up, positioned my length at her opening, and sank slowly down upon me. It took everything in my power not to cry out loudly in ecstasy as she did this.

When I was fully seated inside her, she ground her hips against me and bent to kiss my chest and stomach.

“Amai,” I breathed, choking on my own pleasure. “Amai, I missed you.”

She kissed me, the tip of her tongue playing with mine inside my mouth. “I missed you, Yenuno. I couldn’t wait to come back.”

She began to bounce on me, moving me inside her. I had waited so long for this that and was so wound up and sensitive I didn’t know how long I was going to last. I had to grasp her hips and slow her down. Taking the hint, she rocked back and forth, taking a little more time and reaching down to toy with herself. She looked down at me and bit her lip.

Her fingers moved faster, and she began to moan and gasp, her eyes rolling back and closing. My hands still on her hips, I thrust upward into her and she moaned sharply. Then, I couldn’t stop, thrusting up hard and fast, and she held onto my arms and rode me, crying out and gasping.

My eyes snapped shut as I felt the first shot of my seed leave me. My whole body was rigid and pulsing, and she was silent, her eyes close, her mouth open, breathing in and out sharply.

Finally she collapsed on top of me, and my body felt completely boneless. She slid sideways and lay her head on my arm, lying on her back as she was instructed to do after insemination.

As we lay there, catching our breath, she touched my face tenderly with her fingertips. “I love you.”

I took her tiny, five fingered hand into my much larger, three fingered one. We were so different, and perhaps that was a good thing. I thought about the children, and how different in temperament they were to me and how much like her they were. They were outgoing and self-confident and in no way shy or antisocial, as my kind typically were. It was perfectly fine for other naga species to remain this way as they were thriving, but perhaps for my kind to survive, we _had_ to change. And she was the change we needed.

“It’s very rare for nagas to mate for life, you know,” I said. “We see ourselves as solitary creatures, and we’re usually happy that way. But…” My hand closed around hers. “I don’t want to be alone again. When the children mature, they’ll go out on their own and I want someone with me when they do. I want it to be you. Forever.”

“That’ll be a long time, if we keep laying clutches,” She said with a smile in her voice. “We could have dozens of children before you’re alone again.”

“Even still, that day will come,” I told her. “Will you still be here on that day?”

“I certainly plan on it,” She replied, kissing the back of my hand. “But you'll live longer than me. Eventually we’ll be separated, one way or another.”

“If I’m only allowed a few years with you, I rather have those than go back to how it was before. I didn’t even realize how isolated I was until I met you, and I don’t want to go back.”

“At least you’ll have the children to keep you company when I am gone,” She said soberly.

“And if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have them either,” I said. “You’ve changed everything.”

“Is that a good thing?” She asked, looking at me, her face sweet and open.

“It’s the best thing,” I replied softly, kissing her forehead.

We stayed in the shelter all night that night, and Dr. Halvorg, seeing the data coming in and perhaps realizing we’d need more privacy than the first time, kept the children on the opposite end of the forest for the evening. They greeted us in the morning, however.

The way Amai’s face lit up when they called her “Mother” was as much a gift as the children had been. I hoped there would be many more gifts in the future.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Amai becomes pregnant the mammalian way, Yenuno accuses her of cheating on him and throws her out. Amai swears she never betrayed him and that the baby must be his. Is she telling the truth?
> 
> *Note: This was supposed to the the last chapter, but it ended up running REALLY long, so I had to break it up. The last chapter is almost finished and will hopefully be posted soon.

Four years and ten additional children later, I couldn’t have been happier with my life. I still lived at the facility, but they had built up my shelter to accommodate me, Amai, and the children, and also had greatly expanded my hunting territory, since the children were depopulating the area allocated to us pretty fast.

Amai still worked for the civil rights firm part time, but she was as devoted to the children as I was. She even took them out of the facility and to a local park to introduce them to children of other races, much to my trepidation. It took a moment of adjustment for everyone involved, but my little ones played with the other children just fine. It was now a weekly occurrence.

There was some sadness, however. Every egg in this year’s clutch hadn’t taken, and Amai and I had mourned their loss. The children, who were looking forward to more brothers and sisters, were crestfallen as well.

The night after the final egg had died and had been expelled from Amai’s body, she cried against me in our nest.

“Don’t cry, beloved,” I told her. “It happens sometimes.”

“I know,” She said through her tears. “I’m just so disappointed.”

“As am I,” I said, holding her close to me, kissing her forehead. “Perhaps you’ve done too much too quick. You’ve successfully carried fourteen eggs over the last five years. Perhaps it has put too much strain on your body. Maybe waiting another year or two before trying again would be good for you.”

“Maybe,” She sniffed. “I… I just… I know how important this is. It feels like I failed you and the kids.”

“You’ve done nothing of the sort,” I replied, running my claws carefully through her curls.

“I’m afraid… I’m afraid that I can’t carry anymore,” She whispered, her tears flowing more quickly. “What will happen if that’s the case? Will you… will you have to breed with someone else?”

“No,” I said firmly. “No one else. Only you. If the time for us to make more children has passed, then it has passed. I made a vow to be with you and you alone. I won’t betray that vow. Or you.”

She gripped me tightly. “I love you, Yenuno.”

“I love you, Amai.”

The next day, Amai and I sat down with Dr.Halvorg and explained that she was going to take the next two years off to allow her body to recover from the strain of carrying so many eggs in such a short amount of time. He seemed to understand, but was as disappointed as Amai.

“Are you interested in trying with a different surrogate?” He asked me.

“No,” I said. “I will wait for Amai to be ready again. She is the only one I choose to carry my children.”

Dr. Halvorg shrugged. “If you say so.”

I liked Dr. Halvorg, but he took this project far too seriously. He didn’t see why my partnership with Amai should stop me from finding other surrogates to carry more eggs. I wondered if he had ever been in love.

Amai took a sabbatical from work and stayed in the facility. She was rather dejected at both losing the eggs and having to wait two years to attempt carrying again. She had become despondent and withdrawn, and it hurt my heart to see her suffering.

Sex would be off the table for weeks; her body needed time to heal and clean itself out after losing the eggs. Besides, considering how low her spirits were, I doubted she’d have been receptive to any attempt at intimacy. However, I was extra attentive and affectionate, spending much of the day tending to her, although she fussed at me for hovering.

The only thing that seemed to cheer her were the children. They made her little gifts and sang her songs and showered her with affection. Our children had inherited much of Amai’s personality, including her innate sense of empathy. Though they were still quite young, they knew she was hurting.

One night while Amai was resting, I was laying the children down for sleep in a special room inside my shelter with a glass ceiling so that they could see the sky, when my little Amaia asked me, “Is Mama still sad because of the eggs?”

“Yes, my darling,” I said. “She had so hoped to give you some new brothers and sisters.”

“But I have so many brothers already,” She said. “I don’t need more of those.”

I laughed. “Wouldn’t you like a sister, then?”

Of all my children, Amaia was the only female that had hatched so far, and as such, the only female of our species in existence.

Amaia frowned. “Not if it makes Mama sad. I don’t like it when Mama’s sad.”

“Neither do I, my sweet girl,” I replied, stroking her hair. “But you mustn’t worry. Mama will be alright. We’ll take good care of her, won’t we, precious?”

“Yes, Papa,” She said.

“Goodnight, Amaia,” I said, kissing her brow.

“Night, Papa,” She replied, curling around herself.

Amai slowly came out of her desolation and went back to work, which filled me with relief. Though, I was less relieved when she told me that she had news.

“They want me to do a seminar about non-human civil rights and interspecies surrogacy at an Interspecies Relations Conference in Pasadena, California!” She said, bouncing excitedly around our nesting room after the children had settled for the night. “I’m usually incubating every year during the convention, but this year I’ll be able to go! It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

“That’s… that’s wonderful,” I said, trying to be excited for her while being worried at the same time. “Isn’t Pasadena halfway across the country?”

“Yeah,” She replied, dancing around in glee. “I’ve never been to California.”

I was happy her mood had changed for the better, but…

“How long will you be away?” I asked.

“Just a week. They want me to do three talks, so it’ll be stretched out over the week, and I’ll be able to attend some of the other seminars while I’m there.”

A week? At the risk of sounding co-dependent, Amai and I had not be apart from each other for more than a day since we had become mates. I was not looking forward to the separation.

“Hey,” She said, tilting her head to look at my face. “You okay?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” I said, a strained smile on my face. “I’m very happy for you. This is a great thing.”

She _tsk_ ed and walked over to me, putting her arms around my neck. “I’ll miss you, too, Yenuno. But it’s not like it’s six months this time. It’s just a week. I’ll skype every day and I’ll be back before you know it.”

I kissed her. She always knew what I needed to hear.

“And besides,” She continued, her voice going soft and sultry. “It’s a month away.” She ran her nails over my shoulder blades and I shivered. “Plenty of time to be very,” _Kiss._ “Very,” _Kiss._ “Close.”

I grinned and picked her up, carrying her to the nest. We made love several times that night, and every night, until it was time for her to leave for her conference.

After packing and getting ready to leave, she met us by the exit and kissed and hugged each child individually, promising to bring them back presents and take lots of pictures of her trip. Only the smallest three cried when she left, though the others were just as unhappy.

“Oh, don’t worry, my babies,” She said, cuddling them as they sobbed, wiping away their tears. “I’ll miss you guys so much. I’ll call every day. And I’ll be back super soon.”

“Promise?” Jinsa asked.

“Cross my heart,” She said, making the motion of an _X_ over her heart. She explained to me that this was a human way of making an unbreakable vow to someone. I still didn’t much understand it, but Jinsa accepted it and hugged his mother around the neck.

After saying her farewells to all the children in turn, I hugged her close, and she squeezed me back.

“I have to go soon, or I’ll start crying,” She said in my ear.

“Me, too,” I said, a little watery myself.

She pulled back, kissed me, and bid us all goodbye before leaving the building and putting her luggage in a cab. The children and I waved from the window as she pulled away.

That evening, I took Nenish, a child of our second clutch, out for hunting lessons. Amai and I felt it was important to give each child one-on-one quality time, regardless of how many we had. The last thing we wanted was for them to feel neglected or ignored or that there were just too many for us to give them the attention they deserved.

“Alright,” I whispered, crouching low. We had a small rabbit in our sights, perfect for Nenish’s size, which Amai had equated to a human five year old, though he was only three and a half. We’d move on to bigger prey when he was older. “Rabbits are flighty and can move very fast when they need to. Focus and strike before he even realizes you’re there.”

“Yes, Papa,” He whispered back, his face intense with concentration. He got down on his hands, so that his belly was pressed to the forest floor, and readied himself.

“ _Now,_ ” I hissed, and Nenish struck, quick as lightning, just like I taught him. Nenish was the fastest of his siblings and would be an incredible hunter when he was older.

He came racing back, holding the rabbit by its ears. The rabbit was screeching and scrabbling to get away.

“I got it, Papa! I got it! On my first try!” He said excitedly.

“Very well done, my boy,” I said proudly, ruffling his curls. “Now, kill it quickly. Just because we have to eat them is no reason to make them suffer more than is necessary.”

He nodded and took the rabbit by the neck, snapping it effortlessly, and then put it under his arm as he turned back toward the facility.

“Are you not going to eat it?” I asked him.

“No,” He said. “I was going to give it to Mama.”

“Oh, son, I don’t think this is something your mother would like much. Remember? She doesn’t eat like we do.”

“Oh,” He said. “Well, then, I’ll give it to Jinsa. He likes rabbits.”

“Very thoughtful,” I said, turning to make our way back to the facility.

“Do you miss Mama?” Nenish asked.

“Yes, very much,” I replied. “Do you?”

“Yeah,” He admitted. “She’s never been away before. What if she doesn’t come back? What if she decides she likes it better with the other humans and stays with them?”

“That’s unlikely, son,” I said. “She loved us all very much. And she promised to come back, didn’t she?”

“Yeah,” He said, slithering on a head of me.

To be honest, I had worried the same thing. Living at the facility had to be strange and unnatural for Amai. The others who worked at the facility, with the exception of Dr. Halvorg, all had families they went home to. Since the breeding program had been postponed, the facility was working with a skeleton crew of researchers and an handful of caregivers, to help with the children. I wondered if Amai was lonely here with us, if she longed to seek out human companionship. A friend… or… maybe… more than a friend…

I shook the thought from my head. Amai was my mate. She had made a vow to me and our children. She was nothing if not loyal and honest. It was wrong of me to even think such a thing.

The week passed slowly, but finally she returned. After being rushed to the ground by all the children, laughing and giving them all kisses, she embraced me and held me for a long time.

“Oh, God, I missed you, Yenuno,” She said in my ear.

“I missed you, too, my love,” I replied. I pulled back and examined her face. “Are you alright? You look tired.”

“I’m exhausted,” She said, letting the children take her bags and put them away. She had taught them the importance of manners and helping others. “The conference was fun and I learned a lot, but I’m _very_ happy to be home.”

I puffed up a little and put my arm around her as we made our way to our shelter. “I’m glad to hear that. How about a little nap?”

“Sounds wonderful,” She said, leaning against me.

She slept a lot over the next few days, and when she wasn’t sleeping, she was violently ill. Concerned, I asked Dr. Halvorg to examine her.

“It’s probably just a convention bug. It’s pretty common,” Amai said, laying in the nest, covered in a blanket.

“She’s right,” Dr. Halvorg said. “When a large group of people gather in a one place from different locations, new and unfamiliar germs get passed around. It’s almost universally acknowledged that you’re going to get sick after a huge gathering like that.”

“Then why do it?” I asked, confused.

“Because it’s fun,” She said, smiling sleepily.

“And exposure to new germs is actually good for the immune system, as counter-intuitive as that sounds,” Dr. Halvorg said as he drew some blood. “Wanna do me a favor and give me a urine sample?” He asked, holding out a closed plastic cup to Amai.

“You got it, Boss,” She said, carefully getting up, clutching me. “Whoa, vertigo.”

She disappeared into the bathroom.

“Is she going to be alright?” I asked Dr. Halvorg with worry.

“Oh, sure,” He said. “It’s likely just a stomach flu. Really common. Once we do the blood and urine tests, we’ll know for sure and we can give her the appropriate medicine. I’d recommend keeping the kids away for now. You haven’t been affected, but we still don’t know if it’s communicable. Don’t want the little ones getting sick.”

Amai emerged and handed the cup back to Dr. Halvorg. He took it and the vials of blood and told us he’d have answers by the end of the day.

I helped Amai back into the nest and lay down with her, braced on my elbow so I could look down at her.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Okay,” She said. “Dr. Halvorg gave me some anti-nausea medicine, and it’s helping.”

“Good,” I replied, resting my forehead on hers. Her temperature seemed higher than normal. I also noticed her heart rate was elevated, even though she was at rest. My brow furrowed.

“You’ve never been ill like this before,” I said, worried. “Are you sure it’s nothing serious?”

She laughed at me and caressed my cheek. “You worry too much, Yenuno. Go see the children. You’ve been hovering over me all day; they must be lonely.”

I snorted. “There’s fourteen of them, my love. I highly doubt ‘lonely’ is the word I’d use.”

“Go, you silly thing,” She said, smiling sleepily.

“Fine, fine,” I said, acquiescing. “You’ll rest, won’t you?”

“Yes, I promise,” She said, settling in. I spared her a parting smile and went to spend time with the children.

That evening, while the children were playing in the forest with a few of the researchers and Amai and I were playing a card game, Dr. Halvorg came into the shelter. He looked angry and regarded Amai with an unfriendly expression. An instinct to place myself between them rose up in me.

“So…” Dr. Halvorg said. “I have the results of the tests. Do you have something you want to tell Yenuno before I read them?” He asked Amai, his jaw working.

I looked at Amai in surprise. Her expression was just as shocked as mine.

“No?” She said. “Why would I?”

“You sure?” He asked, his voice raising in volume. “You sure there’s nothing you want to admit? Nothing you want to own up to? You sure you can sit there, all calm and collected, like you don’t have anything to be ashamed of?”

“Okay, what the fuck are you talking about?” Amai said, getting angry herself.

“You’re pregnant,” Dr. Halvorg spat, throwing down a clipboard with the results of Amai’s test.

“What?” She said, taking the clipboard and studying it. “No, all the eggs died.”

“I’m not talking about the eggs,” Halvorg said. “You’re not incubating, your _preg-nant_. With a baby.”

Her brow furrowed, her mouth agape. “No… That’s impossible.”

Confusion washed over my brain. “Wait, I don’t understand. What does this mean?”

“It means she’s betrayed you, betrayed your children, and put this whole program at risk!” Halvorg said loudly, pointing an accusing finger at Amai, who shot to her feet in indignation.

“I did no such thing!” She shouted back. “I would never do that to Yenuno or the kids! How dare you accuse me of cheating!”

“Explain that, then!” Halvorg said, gesturing at Amai’s belly.

I finally put the pieces together, and it was as if cold ice water had been dumped on my body, starting from the top of my head and slowly cascading down my spine to the tip of my tail. I stared at Amai in horror.

“How… how could you…” I started, barely able to string a sentence together in the haze of anger and pain. “How could you do this to me?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Amai insisted. “Yenuno, I swear to god I would never do that to you! You know how much you and the kids mean to me! I’d never do anything to hurt you or them!”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I’d been gutted. I lurched away from her as she reached out to me.

“Yenuno, I swear…”

“Don’t…” I gasped, clutching a hand to my chest, struggling to breath, but it felt like iron bands had wrapped around me and was tightening as each second passed.

“Yenuno, I promise you, I haven’t been with anyone besides you! I swear on my life! There has to be a way to prove it!” She gripped her hair and paced. “Do an amniocentesis. Compare it to Yenuno’s DNA. I promise you, it has to match him. There’s no one else it could be.”

“Fine,” Halvorg said. “But we can’t do it until you’re at least 15 weeks. Until then…” He he blew a harsh breath out of his nose. “Perhaps you should stay elsewhere.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Are you… are you fucking kidding me? You’re kicking me out?”

“I think that’s for the best, until we get this sorted out,” Halvorg said, his arms crossed.

She turned to me, wide-eyed with disbelief. “Yenuno… you wouldn’t… You’re not going to let him throw me out, are you?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even look at her.

She looked between me and Halvorg and back again, looking for some kind of reassurance.

“Can I at least visit the kids in the meantime?” She asked in a small voice. “They’re my kids, too. You can’t keep me from them.”

“They are only five percent yours, genetically,” Dr. Halvorg said coldly. “And you signed a waiver when you first filled out your paperwork that absolved any parental rights you may have had, remember? You’ve only been allowed to stay as the children’s mother at Yenuno’s behest. Otherwise, you have no legal claim to the children whatsoever.”

Tears sprung to her eyes and her face hardened. “Fuck you, asshole.” She began tossing clothes and personal items in a bag and rushed from the shelter, crying hard. Part of me wanted to chase her down, but the other part was so angry, I hoped she’d never come back.

I looked at Dr. Halvorg’s pinched face, feeling grieved and confused. “What if she was telling the truth?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No way. There’s been several instances of humans life-mating with nagas, and a live pregnancy has never happened.”

“But,” I argued. “Just because it’s never happened doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t happen, right?”

Dr. Halvorg sighed. “What’s more likely, Yenuno? That she’s been impregnated by a species that only lays eggs, or that she cheated on you?” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to think of her that way, but sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one.”

My heart sank. He was right. As much as I hated it, he was right.

The next two months were agony. The thought that she had betrayed me so deeply and lied about it cut me to the bone. She was the first person I had placed unconditional trust into, and to have that trust thrown back in my face made me wish I’d never left the forest.

But, there was a small voice in my head saying, what if she was telling the truth? What if we had been too quick to judge?

The children kept asking for their mother, and I didn’t know what to tell them. Dr. Halvorg, still bitter about the perceived threat to his precious program, had told me to tell the kids that she had left them and wasn’t coming back, but I wouldn’t do that to them. Whatever Amai may or may not have done, I didn’t doubt she loved the children. She called them twice a week and sent them gifts, even though Dr. Halvorg had barred her from the facility.

When the day finally arrived to do the amniocentesis, she arrived at the facility looking exhausted and angry. She had heavy bags under her eyes and she was much paler than normal. It also seemed like she had lost weight. She looked sickly, and as angry as I still was, seeing her that way was jarring.

She didn’t speak to me or Dr. Halvorg. She wouldn’t let either of us in the room with her and the specialist when they performed the procedure. When it was done, she walked out of the room and past me without looking at or speaking to me, heading for the clearing to look for the children.

“How long until we know?” I asked the specialist as she came out of the room.

“Soon, the next hour or so,” She said. “All I have to do is match your DNA against the DNA in the amniotic fluid.”

Anxiety welled up in me as the specialist headed into the laboratory with Dr. Halvorg. I paced the halls, my hands shaking and my guts twisting, waiting for the results. What would happen if the DNA didn’t match? Where would we be? For the first time since I’d started this program, the future was completely shrouded. I didn’t know what I was going to do.

What about the children? How would we handle that? I didn’t want to take her away from them, however upset I was. I wasn’t going to rob my children of their mother, regardless of what Dr. Halvorg said. They weren’t the ones who had made the mistake and they didn’t deserved to be punished.

Finally, after an eternity, the specialist emerged.

“I have the results. Will you call Amai in, please?”

I nodded and headed for the enclosure. When I arrived, I stopped and stared at the sight in front of me.

Amai was sitting on the ground with one of the youngest in her arms, cradling him and touching his face tenderly, with the others sitting or laying in a semi-circle around her or leaning against her. She was singing a song softly to them, and they were singing along with her with their own sweet voices.

 _When darkness falls, you are my star,_  
_A bright, white light that shines on me,_  
_I’m whole again when I’m where you are,_  
_As complete as I could ever be._

 _Stay with me, my baby star,_  
_Lead me home when I am lost,_  
_I think of you, both near or far,_  
_With no regard to what it cost._

 _I’m here with you, my glittering star,_  
_And forever shall I stay_  
_For I love you and all you are,_  
_And I’ll never go away._

 _My gift, my light, my brilliant star,_  
_Rest your head upon my knee_  
_I’ll protect you from any wound or scar,_  
_You’ll be safe and warm with me._

 _I’m home again, my shimmering star,_  
_My heart’s at ease once more,_  
_For home is where I know you are,_  
_And home I’ll be forevermore._

Her head was bowed, so the children couldn’t see the tears in her eyes. But I could see them, and they broke my heart.

“Amai,” I called. She didn’t immediately acknowledge me, but wiped her face and put down the little one. “They have the results.”

Amai kissed all the children and hugged them close, and then stepped past me and into the building.

Inside the receiving area, we were met by the specialist and Dr. Halvorg, who looked sheepish.

“Well, it’s conclusive,” The specialist said, handing a sheaf of papers to Amai. “Half of the genetic material belongs to Amai, the other have belongs to Yenuno. Somehow, despite having gotten pregnant the mammalian way, which should be impossible, there’s no doubt that this baby is Yenuno's.”

“ _I told you!_ ” Amai exploded, shoving me in the shoulder. “I _told_ you I hadn’t done anything wrong! You and him,” She gestured violently at Dr. Halvorg, who looked ashamed. “Decided that the last five years meant nothing!”

“I apologize for jumping to conclusions,” Dr. Halvorg said. “Although this does present an excellent opportunity. I’m unaware if this phenomenon has ever occurred before, so we have an unprecedented chance to study--”

“Are you _insane_?” Amai interjected. “You think a simple ‘my bad’ is enough to placate me, and then it’s just back to business as usual? Fuck you! This baby is _mine_ , and _you_ have no claim to it.”

“Amai, I--” I reached out to touch her face, and she flinched away from me.

“Don’t touch me!”  She shrieked, swatting my hand away. “You never get to touch me again!”

“Please, Amai, I’m so sorry. I should have believed you--”

“Yes, you should! But you don’t trust me! You threw me away at the drop of a hat! You wouldn’t let me see the kids! Why should I ever trust you again?!”

“Please, Amai, forgive me!” I begged.

“ _No!_ ” She grabbed her bag and stormed off. “I’m never coming back here! Fuck all of you!”

“Amai, wait!” I cried, but she was walking purposefully toward the exit without a look back.

I covered my face in my hands with frustration. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“Look, don’t beat yourself up over this. How could you have known?” Dr. Halvorg said.

I spun and glared at him. “This is as much your fault as it is mine! You said all those awful things and sent her away!”

Dr. Halvorg bristled. “You didn’t exactly stop me, did you! Don’t blame me for your marital problems! It’s not my fault the two of you don’t trust each other!”

“She did trust me! I was so confused and blindsided that I didn’t have time to process things! I should have talked to her! You sent her away before I got the chance!”

“This is ridiculous. After all I’ve done for you, you have the gall to blame me for this? I don’t have to take this,” Dr. Halvorg spat, brushing past me and into his office. I heard the lock click behind him.

Later that evening, as I lay alone in my nest, curled around the emptiness where Amai used to sleep, I heard a knock on the shelter’s retractable wall.

“What?” I called, not moving.

The wall was raised, and Halvorg stood there.

“Can I come in?” He asked.

“Why not?” I said snidely. “I can’t very well stop you, can I? You own the place.”

He sighed and walking in, pulling up a chair from the table, Amai’s chair, and sat down next to the nest. I crossed my arms and didn’t look at him. Was I being petulant? Perhaps. But I was feeling petulant.

“Look, Yenuno,” He began slowly. “I’m sorry about this afternoon. I will admit that I share some of the blame for driving Amai away, and I apologize. I shouldn’t have meddled in something that was, by all rights, none of my business.”

I scoffed. “Telling me your sorry isn’t going to bring Amai back. She’s never coming back. She’ll never trust me again. And I don’t blame her.”

Halvorg was quiet for a while. His continued presence was grating, but before I could ask him to leave, he said, “Did you know the fae aren’t good breeders? It’s true that there are a lot of us, but that’s because we’re immortal. We aren’t creating more of us; the ones that exist just aren’t dying. Perhaps that’s why it’s so hard for us to conceive, but whatever the reason, it’s nearly impossible to create a child between two fae. It’s slightly easier to procreate with other races, which is why there aren’t very many pure-blooded fae left. Hell, I’m only a quarter fae on my grandmother’s side.

“I may not look it, but I’m over seven hundred years old. In my lifetime, I’ve been married over 30 times. Race or body type never mattered to me, but I have always preferred women. I loved all of my wives very much, and I felt each of their passing deeply. With each one, I tried hard to have a child, and each time, I failed.”

I turned to look at him, startled by his story. He looked no older that 35. I had also assumed that he was simply not interested in love. It seems that, after five years, we still had much to learn about each other.

“In 1898, I met and married a human woman. She was beautiful and intelligent, and she was the first of all my wives to give me the one thing I wanted most. A child. A son.”

Halvorg stared at the floor and scrubbed his neck.

“After the baby was born, things changed. She became… cold. Distant. I didn’t understand what I’d done to push her away until the day I came home to find her packing her bags to leave. She was in love with someone else and she wanted to be with him. The affair had been going on for years and my son… was not mine. He was _his_. The other man’s.”

To my shock, a tear fell from Dr. Halvorg’s normally impassive face.

“I should have realized sooner that my son wasn’t fae. I should have sensed it when he was born. But… I was so blinded by my happiness and love for him that I ignored the signs.” He wiped the tear away and clasped his hands between his knees, bending over them. “She took the boy far away and I never saw him again. I don’t know what became of him. He’s dead now, I’m sure.”

He looked up at me. “I never married again after that, and I gave up trying to father children. I admit that it may be why I seem… prickly and married to my work. But it’s one of the reasons I went into conservation in the first place.” More tears fell. “When your eggs hatched… I was so happy for you.”

I sat up and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. That is a very sad tale. But it doesn’t absolve you of the wrong you did to Amai.”

“No,” He said, sniffing. “You’re right. I’ve been an asshole, and not only is Amai suffering for it, so are the children. I never meant for that to happen. I may behave as if this is all some big experiment for me, but I do love the kids. Their happiness is important to me, and yours is, too.”

“Then do you have any idea what I can do to salvage my relationship with Amai?” I asked desperately. “I want her back so badly.”

Dr. Halvorg squared his shoulders. “I have a few ideas. They may take some time. We should get started in the morning.” He stood up to leave. “Try to rest.”

“Easier said than done,” I grumbled.

“Try anyway,” He said, pulling down the shelter wall.

After some time, I fell asleep, only to dream of the life I’d lost. A life with my love and children all around me. What once had been a happy dream now tormented me. I woke in the morning determined to get her back, no matter what it took.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yenuno goes to great lengths to win Amai back, and his daughter, a mix of both he and Amai, is born.

Halvorg was right, it did take time. It took weeks of negotiation and aggravation and many meetings with lawyers, some of whom worked in Amai’s firm, though due to confidentiality agreements, she wasn’t aware that they were even coming to the conservation facility.

Finally, I had what I needed. Now all that was left was the final touch, which would involve me doing something I thought I’d never do: leave the facility and go out into the world.

Dr. Halvorg offered to go with me, but I doubted Amai would be thrilled to see him. Besides, I believed for this to have the impact I was going for, it would be best to do it alone.

One of the staff had given me a t-shirt and jacket to wear. I had never worn clothes before in my life, but they insisted it was more socially appropriate to be wearing some clothing when in public.

It was the moment of truth: time to go out. Anxiety clawed at my brain and made my heart race. I had the papers in a briefcase clutched in my left hand. Dr. Halvorg opened the front door for me, and I took several calming breaths before slithering down the ramp and out onto the walkway that led out to the sidewalk.

Halvorg had given me a phone with GPS and had put the address of Amai’s law firm into it. All I had to do was follow the line.

_Just… just follow the line. Easy._

I snaked my way out of the front gate and down the long driveway and out into the open sidewalk.

_Oh gods. Not easy._

There were too many people, walking this way and that, too many eyes on me, too much noise, too many lights. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the streets or the alleys. I was overwhelmed. I quickly made my escape to a dark alley behind a… restaurant? I didn’t know; I’d never been to one. My vision was tunneling out and my chest was tight. I couldn’t breath. I felt like I might cry, but my eyes were dried out and burning.

“Hey, buddy, you okay?”

I looked up and saw an orc in a police uniform. The badge said “Ridgerunner.”

“Uh…” I said, my mouth completely dry and my throat having trouble making sound. “I… I don’t…”

“Hey, it’s okay, buddy, relax,” She said, pulling a steel bottle from her belt. “Here’s some water. Take a sec and breathe, okay.”

I nodded and gulped both water and air.

“Are you from the conservation facility?” Officer Ridgerunner asked.

I looked up and nodded. “How’d you know?”

She laughed. “I’ve seen your kids at the playground. They look just like you. Your mate is a sweetie, by the way. She always talks about you.”

“She does?” I said, surprised. I didn’t realized she talked about me outside of the facility. For some reason, I just assumed it was something she kept to herself.

“Oh, yeah, she’s over the moon about you,” She said. “I haven’t seen her around lately, though. The other kids at the park miss her and the sprouts.”

“Yeah, a lot’s been going on lately. We’re working through it,” I said, perhaps untruthfully. “Actually, I’m trying to get to her office, but I’ve never been there. Can you help me?”

“Of course,” She said, offering me a hand. I took it and settled back on my tail. “It’s not far.”

I put the GPS in my pocket and followed the officer to a largish building that said _Carter, Song, and Matsuda, Civil Rights and Non-Human Representatives_ on the side.

“Here you go, buddy,” She said, holding her hand out.. “Good luck.”

I shook her hand. “Thank you for your help, officer.”

She waved me away. “Call me Rachel.” With that, she was off.

I swallowed my heart and fell into the front door with a grunt of relief, and a woman at the front desk, looking perplexed, asked, “Are you alright? Can I help you?”

“Yes,” I gasped, straightening and smoothing down the shirt. I realized I was sweating. “I’m looking for Amai. Is she here?”

She paused, narrowing her eyes at me. “Are… are you Yenuno?”

“Yes,” I replied, surprised. “How did you know?”

“Oh, honey, she talks about you and the kids all the time! She didn’t tell me you were coming in today.”

“Oh…” I said, startled again at Amai’s openness about her relationship with me. “I’m surprising her. I have a present. Can you show me to her office?”

“Sure, sweetie, right this way,” The woman said, leading me down a rather narrow hallway. We stopped at a frosted window with _Amai Matsuda; Non-Human Liaison_ printed on the glass in black lettering. The front desk lady knocked on the door before opening it and poking her head in.

“You’ve got a visitor,” She said.

“Send them in,” You heard Amai say. She sounded tired. Front desk lady held open the door for me, and I nodded thanks.

Amai was typing on her computer feverishly, hyper-focused, dark circles prominent under her eyes. She was neatly put together, as always, though she was wearing a flowy, loose-fitting top, the kind she liked to wear when she was incubating.

“Amai,” I said quietly.

She stopped typing and looked up in shock. “Yenuno?” She said, standing. The swell of her belly wasn’t large, but definitely noticeable and it immediately drew my eye. “What are you doing here? How did you even get here? Why are you wearing _clothes_?”

“The staff at the facility said it was appropriate,” I said. Once I managed to get all of my tail into the room, the front desk lady shut the door behind me and walked off. “I came… to apologize,” I said. “I know an apology isn’t enough for what I’ve done, but I am truly sorry.”

She folded her arms and was silent for a moment.

“You took my children from me,” She said. “You kicked me out into the street and didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself.”

“I know,” I replied, my head bowed.

“You don’t trust me,” She said, her brow furrowing.

“No, that’s not true! I do trust you!”

“No, you don’t!” She shot back. “If you did, you’d have given me the benefit of the doubt. You’d have waited for evidence, but you didn’t. Have you ever trusted me, Yenuno? Or has the last four years just been a ploy to keep me as your incubator?”

“No! I swear, Amai, I do trust you. I was a fool not to. I love you so much and I want you to come home. The children want their mother back. Please believe me,” I said pleadingly.

“How am I supposed to believe you, Yenuno?” She asked, throwing up her hands exasperatedly. “What reason do I have to believe you?”

“This might help,” I said, laying the briefcase on her desk and opening it.

“What is that?” She asked.

“Adoption papers,” I replied, and her jaw dropped. “For all of the children. These will legally make you the children’s mother, and you will have the same rights to them as I do.”

With her mouth hanging open, she took the stack of papers from me and looked through them, stunned to silence.

“Here,” I said, picking up the stapled stack at the bottom. “This is a renegotiation of the contract agreement you first signed for the surrogacy program. It names you as the legal mother of any future children we have, and you will have full parental rights to them, as well.”

Tears streaked down her face as she took the papers from me and read them, still having trouble finding her voice.

“They’re all legally binding and plainly worded. I made sure there were no legal loopholes to be exploited. All they need is your signature.”

“I can’t believe this,” Amai whisper, weeping. “The terminology is iron-clad. Some serious work went into these.”

“That’s why it took so long for me to come,” I admitted. “The lawyers took forever drawing these up. We kept having to revise them.”

She picked up a pen and was about to set it to the paper when she paused and put it back down.

“You know this doesn’t completely fix things, don’t you?” She said. “It’s a good first step, but Yenuno, you dropped me like a hot box of rocks at the first sign of trouble, like I meant absolutely nothing to you. I need some kind of guarantee that that’s not going to happen again and that you’re committed to us being together.”

“Anything,” I said immediately. “I’ll do anything to get you back. Name it and I’ll do it, I promise.”

“You might just regret that promise,” She said with a sardonic smile. “I have three conditions. Number one, I’m renting a apartment now. I signed a six month lease just a few weeks ago. Breaking the lease would cost me a great deal of money. Not only that, but I think if we’re going to rebuild this relationship from the ground up, it would be good for us to stay apart for a while and work back into it slowly. So, I will be staying in the apartment until my lease is up. But, I will come and visit you and the children every day, and have my check-ups with Dr. Halvorg, as much as I hate his guts right now.”

“I can accept that,” I said. “What are the other two conditions?”

“Do you know what couple’s therapy is?” She asked me, leaning her hip against her desk. I shook my head. “It’s when a couple, like you and me, find themselves in a difficult place in their relationship, they see a counselor or a therapist to help them through their issues. I think we should do that.”

“I’m sure Dr. Halvorg wouldn’t mind having a therapist come to the facility--”

“Let me stop you there,” Amai said. “That’s the third condition. If we do this, we’re not doing it at the facility. I don’t want the kids any more confused about the situation than they already are. So if you’re serious about this, you have to go with me to the therapist’s office. Outside of the facility.”

That made me stop and think for a moment, looking down at the floor. Today had been… unpleasant. Doing it again sounded like a nightmare. But was that nightmare more frightening than living a life without Amai?

She sighed and walked up to me. I so badly wanted to reach out and gather her up and hold her, but I knew now was not the time. She needed space.

“Look, Yenuno, I know that coming here by yourself was difficult for you. I know the outside world scares you, and the significance of the gesture is not lost on me. I know this was hard and I genuinely appreciate the effort you’ve made to make things right. I still love you, Yenuno, but if we try again, it’s going to be on _my_ terms. These are the terms. I’m willing to give you a second chance if you can prove to me you’re willing to do the work.” She put her hand on my cheek, the first time she had touched me in months, and made me look at her. “Okay?”

I took a deep, deep breath. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

“You promise me?” She asked, her eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“I swear. On my life, on my death, I swear.”

She searched my eyes, looking for deception. Apparently satisfied, she said, “Okay,” and went to sign the papers.

Amai took the rest of the day off to come and see the kids. It had been weeks since she’d even spoken to them, and they were overjoyed. They were disappointed that she wasn’t staying, but cheered up when she told them she’d be visiting every day.

Though Dr. Halvorg was apologetic, Amai greeted him coldly, but she allowed him to do an ultrasound. I was thrilled to learn that the baby was a girl, though I was more fascinated by the fact that she appeared to have legs in addition to a tail. I was excited to see what she would be like when she was born.

Amai scheduled an appointment with a therapist three days later. Despite her condition that I make the effort on my own, Amai met me at the front of the facility and walked with me to the therapist’s office. We talked about what we had done while apart these last few months. I learned she had won a case of discrimination against a rabbitman where his home and business had been burned down, which left him and his pregnant fiance injured. I was both horrified by the severity of the crime and proud of Amai for being the champion that gave this family justice.

Therapy was strange to me. Talking about intimate details of my relationship with Amai with a stranger was odd, but I admit, it did help. Amai got a better understanding of Naga culture and our reticence to invest all our trust in people, even people we love, and I got a better understanding of Amai’s innate fear of abandonment. I knew it had affected her, but until we really started talking about it in therapy did I realize how bad it was. My betrayal was shown to me in a different light, and I now understood her desire for a solid guarantee that I’d never do such a thing again.

Amai started taking the kids to the park again, and convinced me to go with them. I saw my children playing with the other kids so well that it eased my heart. At Amai’s urging, I started talking to the other parents. I actually began to make friends. It was both amazing and intimidating.

As time went on, her belly got bigger and bigger. Once the baby began kicking, she let me touch it. I could feel the baby moving inside and it left me awestruck. All I wanted to do was touch her and feel the little thing wiggle and writhe. I couldn’t wait for my new daughter to be born.

One night, as Amai was eight months, I walked her back home to her apartment from the facility. Her lease would be up soon, but we hadn’t yet discussed her moving back to the facility. I was anxious about it, but I wanted her to make the decision herself without my pushing.

She was holding my hand, which she had only just started doing again. I ached to hold her and it was so hard to resist the urge. I knew she could tell, but she was letting me dangle. I did deserve it, after all.

“The baby is coming soon,” Amai said as we strolled leisurely back to the apartment building. “Are you ready to meet her?”

“I’m so excited,” I said, touching her stomach just as the baby kicked. “Have you decided on a name?”

“Hmm…” She hummed. “I was thinking Yenu, after her father.”

I stopped short and faced her, shocked. “You mean that?”

She turned and hugged me, pressing her body against mine, and I relaxed my own body for the first time in months. All the tension left me as I wrapped her in my arms. I felt like I could breathe again for the first time since she left.

“She may be one of a kind,” She whispered into my ear. “But she’s still your little girl. She should have your name.”

“That’s a wonderful gift, Amai. I’ll cherish it.” I was trying my best not to cry, but these last few months had been so difficult, and the tears came.

“Oh, Yenuno, I know it’s been hard,” She said, parting enough so that she could hold my face in her hands and wipe away my tears. “I know you’re doing everything you can to fix this and it’s killing you. I know your hurting. I love you.”

She stood on her tip-toes, and kissed me. She kissed me for the first time in eight months. It was all I could do not to ravish her there on the empty sidewalk. Gods, I wanted her so badly.

Her kiss deepened, and I suddenly had a thought that she was feeling the same way as me. When she broke the kiss, she looked up at me with half-lidded eyes and bit her lip.

“You’ve never seen my apartment,” She said. “It’s a ground floor, so no stairs. Want to have a look?”

“Yes,” I breathed. “I would like that very much.”

Her apartment was small and practical. There were pictures of our children all over the walls. There was even one of me right over the couch. I didn’t even know she had a picture of me.

“Are you thirsty?” She asked. “I don’t have anything to offer to eat, but I can give you some water.”

“No, no, I’m fine, thank you,” I said. “I’m just happy to be with you.”

She blushed; blushed like we were still courting. I was as nervous as I was the first day we met. This felt… new. Like we were just starting our relationship, meeting again for the first time, getting ready to start a new life. It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

She reached out her hand for mine, and I took it. She led me down a wide hallway to a one of two doors, which turned out to be her bedroom. Instead of an actual bed, there was a nest of blankets and pillows on the ground, just like our nest back at the facility. I looked at her with a questioning glance.

She shrugged and laughed self-consciously. “I guess I just got used to it. A regular bed feels weird now.”

I got into the room and spun to look at her in the moonlight filtered through the window. Gods, she was beautiful. She was looking at me, too, but instead of admiration, there was laughter in her eyes.

“What?” I asked.

“I can’t take you seriously in clothes,” She said, pulling the sweater I was wearing over my head so that I was uncovered. “Much better,” She murmured, touching my chest appreciatively.

I was glad for it. The children wore clothes regularly, but I was still not used to clothing.

Now to get her out of her clothes…

I touched her face, testing my limits, and she smiled, pulling my hand downward to her breast. I was shaking as I pulled her blouse off of her, exposing her belly and bra. She took her bra off as I did away with her skirt. She was left in her underwear as she pulled me close.

“You’re shivering, Yenuno,” She said, kissing my cheek and neck. “Are you okay? Are you cold?”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” She said. “Lie down with me.”

I lifted her and lay her in the nest, kissing down her body. She lifted her hips so that I could help her shimmy out of her underwear. She then leaned up so that she could prop herself up on some pillows and pulled her knees up and open.

As I kissed her, my hand reached between her knees and touched that heat I had craved for so long, feeling my length slip out of it’s sheath. She moaned against my lips as I rubbed her up and down slowly, gently, and circled that sweet spot the way she liked. It may have felt brand new again, but I still knew my love and what she liked. I pressed a finger inside her, and she cried out with that sweet voice you adored. Music I had so sorely missed.

“I miss you so much, Amai,” I breathed into her skin.

“I miss you, too, sweetheart,” She replied, reaching for me. I sank into her arms and kissed her hard. She dug her heels into my tail urgently. I pressed myself against her slit and push, so slowly and carefully. As much as I wanted her, I didn’t want to jostle the little one too much in there. My upper torso was long enough that I could arch over her and kiss her mouth without lying on her belly, and thrust into her. She groaned and ran her fingernails with and against the grain of my scales, making them stand up.

I made soft, sweet love to her for hours. It wasn’t as frenzied as our first time, but it was every bit as earth-shattering. We fell asleep early in the morning, and I awoke at dawn with her in my arms. At first, I thought I was dreaming, and if so, I hoped I never woke up.

Two weeks later, we got a call in the middle of the night that she had gone into labor. The ambulance delivered her to the facility.

I rushed out to meet the EMTs as they lowered her down from the ambulance.

“Are you alright?” I cried in a panic as I saw her writhing in pain.

“Yeah,” She said, reaching out for my hand. “I’m okay. Just contractions.”

Dr. Halvorg met us out in the courtyard. “How dilated is she?”

“We haven’t checked,” The EMT said.

“That’s fine, we’ve got an OBGYN coming in,” Halvorg said. “She’s five minutes out.”

I stayed with Amai as they wheeled her to a room I hadn’t seen before, a surgical theater. They hooked her up to monitors and had a fetal heartbeat lead. Hearing the heartbeat hit me like a ton of bricks. She was _alive_. This wasn’t like an egg; she was going to be coming out a whole person from the word go. Is this how mammals did it all the time? Goodness, it was terrifying.

“How are you doing, Yenuno?” She asked me between puffs of breath.

“Why are you asking me how _I’m_ doing, you silly thing?” I asked, laughing nervously. “You’re about to give birth to a brand new creation, something the world has never seen before, and you’re asking about _me_?”

“Yeah,” She said simply, smiling through the pain. “You okay?”

A tear slipped down my face. “I don’t know.”

She wiped away the tear. “Me neither.”

Another wave of pain hit her, and she winced, gripping my hand with all her strength. Before I could panic, Dr. Reed, the OBGYN, walked through the door. She was a tiefling and had been briefed by Dr. Halvorg about the situation. She was followed by Halvorg and a team of assistants and nurses.

“Should I leave?” I asked the doctors nervously.

“Don’t you dare,” Amai said in warning. “You’re this baby’s father. You’re job is to be here when she comes into the world.”

I looked from her to the OBGYN.

“You heard the boss,” Dr. Reed said with a wry smile.

This wasn’t like laying the eggs. This took _hours_. It was five hours before she was dilated enough to start pushing, and she was breathing and sweating and grunting in pain the whole time. They were afraid of using an epidural, considering the unknown element of the child.

When it was finally time to push, they basically bent her in half and she push with all her might. I held her up and murmured encouragement. She vacillated between cursing my existence and telling me how much she loved me and apologizing for calling me names, which Dr. Reed assured me was normal.

It was grueling and Amai was losing strength. Hours passed, and the baby wasn’t coming. Suddenly, the baby’s heart rate dropped, and Dr. Reed declared an emergency C-Section was necessary. I tried to shove the terror down and be strong for Amai, as she began to cry with fear.

They numbed her down and began to cut, and it scared the hell out of me to see her insides. But suddenly, there she was, my baby girl, out in the world and kicking. She shrieked, another thing I was told was normal, and waved her little arms and legs around. She did have _legs_. I marveled at that.

“Is she okay?” Amai asked, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“She’s just fine,” Dr. Reed said, cutting the umbilical cord and laying the small thing on Amai’s breast. We were able to examine her as they stitched Amai’s stomach closed.

Little Yenu had a long torso and shortish limbs plus a tail that was as long as her body. Her skin was the same color as her mother’s, but she had my blue diamond pattern down her tail and up her spine. Her hands had three fingers, like me, and her feet had three toes. Her hair curled like Amai’s, but was black like mine. She had Amai’s face and eye color, but her tongue was forked. She really was half of both of us.

“She’s beautful,” Amai sobbed, kissing her head.

“She is,” I agreed, my own tears obstructing my vision. “She really is.”

There came tests and studies and measurements of Yenu, and then discovering what kind of creature she would be. She was more like a human baby than a naga one; she wasn’t able to eat solid food but could digest breast milk. She wasn’t able to move on her own yet, either, and was very wiggly.

After Amai had been moved to a large recovery room and had some time to rest, during which I just held my new daughter a little jealously, our children came in to see the new addition.

“She looks so weird,” Amaia said.

“She’s brand new,” I told her. “No one like her has ever existed before.”

“Whoa,” Nenish. “Not ever?”

“Nope,” Amai said. “She’s unique in the whole world.”

“Do you love her more than us?” Kenai asked.

“Of course not!” Amai said sharply.

“But she has more of you in her. We’re mostly Dad,” Kenai said.

“That doesn’t matter,” Amai said, reaching for her son and pulling him into a tight hug. “I love you all so much.”

“Then will you come back to live here with us?” Adju asked.

She looked at me and smiled a tired smile. I brushed the hair from her brow and kissed it.

“Yes,” Amai said. “I’m coming home. I am home.”

Yenu cooed as if in agreement, which fascinated the children, and from that moment on, they were obsessed with the noises she made.

It was days before Amai was able to move, and I took her to the nest. Our nest. The staff had moved everything we needed for the baby out there, so that Amai didn’t need to go into the facility to care for the infant.

Amai reclined in the nest, feeding Yenu.

“She’s so cute,” Amai said, doting.

“As cute as her mother,” I agreed.

“I am worried, though,” She said. “With the c-section, about carrying the eggs in the future.”

“We’ll figure it out, my love, don’t fret over it now,” I said, slithering in beside her to gather my girls in my arms. “Now is the time to be happy.”

“Are you happy?” She asked me, looking up into my eyes.

“The more important question is, are you happy, darling?” I asked.

She smiled and nodded, kissing my cheek. “I am. I’m home at last.”


End file.
